Inside Unmanned Systems

AUG-SEP 2018

Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.

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66 unmanned systems
inside
August/September 2018
AIR LAW ENFORCEMENT
T
he dream that drones may one
day perform deliveries is pur-
sued by a number of corpo-
rate giants, including Amazon, UPS,
Mercedes-Benz, Domino's Pizza and
Google's parent company Alphabet.
However, industry titans are not the
only enterprises pioneering drone de-
livery—drones have already been spot-
ted f lying over prison walls to deliver
heroin and marijuana in Mansfield,
Ohio, and cell phones in Pensacola,
Florida. In a number of other cases,
drug traffickers have f lown metham-
phetamines, heroin and marijuana
from Mexico across the U.S. border.
Around the planet, law enforcement
agencies are now investigating drones
used in crimes. And drones can do
more than just deliver contraband.
"They've been used to surveil military
installations and sensitive institutions,
and they've been accused of being used
to spy on neighbors and stalk people,"
said Steve Watson, chief executive of-
ficer of data recovery and digital fo-
rensics firm VTO Labs in Broomfield,
Colorado. "And in May, the FBI re-
vealed drones were used to disrupt the
monitoring of a hostage situation."
If drones used in crime do get cap-
tured, investigators will want to extract
as much data from them as possible
to help their cases. Now, the National
Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) has developed a website to help
authorities glean "forensic images" from
drones. These images are available to
download for free at www.cfreds.nist.
gov/drone-images.html.
Photos courtesy of VTO Labs.
We seek to answer basic
investigative questions
from data stored within
the drone or its connected
devices. Where did the
drone take off from? Has
the drone flown other
routes? Can we identify
who the drone is registered
to? What devices or
networks has the drone
connected to?"
Steve Watson, CEO, VTO Labs
"
EXTRACTING
FORENSIC
DATA
FROM DRONES
A new online database can help law enforcement
glean precious details from drones.
by Charles Q. Choi
Kaitlyn Fox, a laboratory assistant at VTO
Labs, inspects an aerial drone while
VTO chief technology officer Steve
Watson reviews data from the drone.